Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Sellouts breed camp outs

It’s amazing how fast things can change. Two years ago you could walk up to the ticket booth on game night, regardless of the opponent, and pick up a couple of tickets for ten bucks a pop. Last season, maybe you’d have to plan ahead to get your hands on the more sought-after tickets, but a little bit of foresight and a touch of stick-to-itiveness could net you seats to just about any game.

But this season you’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning to get the good tickets. In fact, you may even have to camp out.

That’s what Ryan Hossner and Kait Trott did. Rather than missing out on the best single game tickets, Hossner and Trott hunkered down on a bench outside of the Rose Garden ticket office on Monday afternoon to make sure they’d be first in line for single game tickets on Tuesday morning. Some might consider waiting out an October night as overboard for choice Trail Blazers tickets, but for true fans, spending a night out in the cold is better than being left out in the cold come gametime.

“It use to be I could buy tickets a week ahead of time or two weeks or even show up the night of,” said Hossner, a college student, “but I got the news that they were only releasing 500 per game to start off with and with the demand like it is and with almost all the season tickets being gone already I didn’t want there to be even the slightest chance that I wouldn’t get to a game this season.”

As far as which games are the most desired, Hossner and Trott mention the usual suspects.

“For sure at opening night,” said Hossner. “That’s number one. If I’m going to get tickets, I’ve got to get Laker tickets. I was in 7th grade during the 2000 Western Conference Finals. That’s something that’s going to stick with me for a long time. Any time I can root against the Lakers, that’s a big deal for me.

“I’m definitely excited to see some of the game toward the end of the season,” said Trott, “because I remember how exciting the games were at the end of this last season.”

For those of you who weren’t able to stake out a spot for outside of the ticket office, there’s still hope. Due to high demand, the Trail Blazers have instituted a new ticket alert service that, for a fee of $19.95, allows you to get first crack at newly released tickets throughout the season.